"He that hath a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honor" - Benjamin Franklin

Monday, June 15, 2015

Bike Show

Saw these, as well as a bunch of other photos, at the 520 Chain Cafe of the 2015 Indy Rockers Reunion. Lots of cool motorcycles pretty close to my backyard. It would be nice to ride down there next year and check it out. Of course, I can only remember a max of three things when going to the store without making a list. Chances of me remembering a bike show a year from now might be a little shakey.

I had a Suzuki triple like the one in the photo, once upon a time. Mine looked a lot nicer. I painted it up Midnight Blue. I put some homemade rearsets on it and changed the gearing. Pretty quick stoplight to stoplight. What it really needed was some of those cool chambers.

The BSA photo needs no explanation.

Managed to get out and do a little something on the Sportster finally. The last time I worked on it was December - that's just not right. Anyway, I had a couple of free hours so I made a shim and welded it in to the actuator for the rear brake light switch. The new chrome brake rod I bought is a little smaller diameter than the stock one, so the actuator wouldn't clamp down tight. All fixed now, including a fresh coat of black paint.

Here's where I left off.

I drug the chain out of the parts box and it's pretty close to trash. I'll order a new one and some new plug wires to get rid of the gaudy blue ones. I was thinking maybe the ACCEL yellow ones but I'll probably stick with black. I won't have much time for working on it this week coming up again. The wife is doing chemo again and I'm working a couple of days. It's been raining on and off the last few days and it looks like that'll continue for another five or so. Lots and lots of standing water around the county. Any free time I'm going to have when it's not raining will be used trying to mow or weed. At least I'm back on the bike. There's not really that much left to do. The wiring, the front brake and some little odds and ends are about all that are left.

Congratulations to my old running buddy/PhD/former colleague at the high school on his marriage Saturday. Peace and happiness to you both.

3 comments:

Lately I have had this vintage bike bug... Contacted a fellow with a stripped down 1950 Triumph Thunderbird, but it was already gone. Oh well. You might remember my Fairmont speeder. it is coming back together now and I have ran it as a floor deck and wheels and did nearly 30ish with it. Tracked well! I will have 105 miles of railroad on the indiana Northeastern to run around on with it. Now to finish the cab... Been spending a considerable amount of time in the shop like always!

Well plan is to finish the motorcar before ice cream season is over... good little place off our railroad in Edon Ohio right by the tracks that I plan to visit via rail. This winter will be time to hammer the sheet metal out on the Hudson. All it needs is the body work, paint and a receiver to pull a teardrop camper that I still want to build for it. You would appreciate one of my acquisitions this year, a late teens early twenties South Bend manual gear screw lathe. 13 x 72. Took it all down cleaned it, reset the headstock shims, leveled the table and gave it a nice coat of satin black and it turned out great. Made a few parts on it since for the motorcar. I am certsinly not a machinist yet, but I am learning.